Animal Club had a visit from David Mitchell, Department of Conservation and Land Management – he is Jessica's dad. He came to tell us all about the Western Swamp Tortoise and how it is seriously endangered. In fact people thought the Western Swamp Tortoise was extinct until a tiny one was found about 10 years ago. Since then a breeding program has been established to increase their numbers. Now there are about 50 adult Swamp Tortoises and hopefully more will be born over time so that they are no longer in danger of becoming extinct.
Clifton Hills Primary School - 5th August 2008
We began this meeting by watching a DVD called ‘Farm Animals and Us in Australia’. This DVD was produced by CIWF Trust in Australia and it discussed different animal welfare issues.
We paid particular attention to the segments that focused on chicken and egg farming. After watching the show we discussed how it was similar and different to the movie we watched the week before. We also talked about how people treated and looked after the chickens while they were alive and what we could do to improve the chicken’s lives. For example, we thought that it would be better to take the egg laying chickens out of the cages and let them roam free on the farm.
This DVD was funded by a Voiceless grant in 2004.
We also talked about:
How we felt very sorry for the chickens that were bred for meat because their bodies were too heavy for their little legs to carry them around so they couldn’t stand up properly.
How we felt very sad for the chickens bred for laying eggs because they were kept in these tiny little cages for their entire lives and they never, ever got to experience the great outdoors, fresh air and sunshine.
After our discussion we held a brainstorming session to come up with some chicken messages we could share with the other students and staff of our school and the people in our community. Below is a list of the messages we came up with:
Take chickens out of cages and give them space to move.
Free Range chickens have better lives.
Free the caged chickens.
Healthy chickens lay healthy eggs.
Free Range eggs come from happy chickens.
Caged eggs come with a consequence.
Treat chickens with the same respect you like.
Chickens deserve a good life.
If you were a chicken would you live in a cage?
Over the next couple of weeks we will be making library bags that have these messages on them.
Ridge Street Kids Club -4th August 2008
Cruelty Free Cakes!
For this week's activity we held a cruelty free cooking class, where we learnt how to make a cake without eggs or dairy. The cake was delicious, and co-incided well with a staff members birthday.
The children decided that making cakes without eggs was more fun, tasted better, and was healthier- especially as we could eat the raw mixture!
Yuluma Primary School - 1st August 2008
Recently two of our Yr 7 Animal Club members set up an Animal Club display in our Library. It described some of the things we do in our Animal Club and had a strong focus on Free Range Eggs. Our District Director was even in to have a look at it.
Emanuel School - 1st August 2008
Emanuel's Animal Club have been busy the last few weeks making blankets for the abandoned dogs at Monika's Doggie Rescue at Ingleside. We improved on last year's model, which was a single sheet of polar fleece material hemmed at the edges, by doubling up the material, overlocking the edges and hand-quilting the blanket so the material doesn't shift during washing. We used polar fleece material as it is warm and cozy, easy to wash and quick to dry.
New style doggie blankets for donation to Monikas Doggie Rescue
Not satisfied with this design, we decided to further improve it by placing light batting between the two pieces of material, then overlocking and quilting the pieces. The result is a very comfortable blanket/quilt which is low maintenance and will last for years to come. We think our four-legged friends will love them! We have made 25 blankets of varying sizes already and have plans to buy more material from a friendly supplier to make even more. The children have been giving up their lunchtimes to sew the blankets and we are planning to have weekend sewing bees when new stocks of material arrive.
